1.
Palazzo dei Normanni
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The Palazzo dei Normanni or Royal Palace of Palermo is a palace in Palermo, Italy. It was the seat of the Kings of Sicily during the Norman domination, seat of the Sicilian Parliament, today it is the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. The building is the oldest royal residence in Europe, the home of the rulers of the Kingdom of Sicily and imperial seat with Frederick II and Conrad IV. The palace stands in what is the highest point of the ancient centre of the city, just above the first Punic settlements, the first building, the al-Qasr is believed to have been started in the 9th century by the Emir of Palermo. Parts of this building are still visible in the foundations and in the basements. After the Normans conquered Sicily in 1072 and established Palermo as the capital of the new Kingdom of Sicily, the Norman kings transformed the former Arabian palace into a multifunctional complex with both administrative and residential aims. All the buildings were linked to each other via arcades and enclosed by gardens, in 1132 King Roger II added the famous Cappella Palatina to the complex, making it the focus of the palace. The Angevin and Aragonese kings preferred other seats, the Bourbons built additional reception rooms and reconstructed the Sala dErcole, named for its frescos depicted the mythological hero, Hercules. From 1946, the palace was the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly, the west wing was assigned to the Italian Army and is the seat of the Southern Military Region. During the sixties, it received comprehensive restorations under the direction of Rosario La Duca, the palace is also the seat of the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo. The palace contains the Cappella Palatina, by far the best example of the so-called Arab-Norman-Byzantine style that prevailed in the 12th-century Sicily. The wonderful mosaics, the roof, elaborately fretted and painted, and the marble incrustation of the lower part of the walls. Of the palace itself the part was rebuilt and added in Aragonese times
2.
History of Italy
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The history of Italy begins with the arrival of the first hominins 850,000 years ago at Monte Poggiolo. Italy shows evidence of habitation by modern humans beginning about 43,000 years ago. It is reached by the Neolithic as early as 6000–5500 BC Cardium Pottery, among the Italic peoples, the Latins, originally situated in the Latium region, and their Latin language would come to dominate the peninsula with the Roman conquest of Italy in the 3rd century BC. The decline and collapse of the Western Empire by the end of the 5th century is taken to mark the end of Late Antiquity, a Lombard Kingdom of Italy was established, although parts of the peninsula remained under Byzantine rule and influence until the 11th century. With the rise of nationalism and the idea of the state in the 19th century. The new Kingdom of Italy, established in 1861, quickly modernized and built a colonial empire, colonizing parts of Africa. However, many regions of the nation remained rural and poor. Part of the allied powers of World War I, Italy defeated its historical enemy. Soon afterwards, however, the state collapsed to social unrest. Italy joined the Axis powers in World War II, falling into a bloody Civil War in 1943, in 1946, as a result of a Constitutional Referendum, the monarchy was abolished. The new republic was proclaimed on 2 June 1946, in the 1950s and 1960s, Italy saw a period of rapid modernization and sustained economic growth, the so-called Italian economic miracle. Italy plays a prominent role in regional and global military, cultural, in prehistoric times, the Italian peninsula was rather different from its current shape. During the last Ice Age, the islands of Elba and Sicily were connected to the mainland. The Adriatic Sea was far smaller, since it started at what is now the Gargano peninsula, the arrival of the first hominins was 850,000 years ago at Monte Poggiolo. The presence of the Homo neanderthalensis has been demonstrated in archaeological findings dating to c.50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens sapiens appeared during the upper Palaeolithic. Remains of the prehistoric age have been found in Liguria, Lombardy. The most famous is perhaps that of Ötzi the Iceman, the mummy of a hunter found in the Similaun glacier in South Tyrol. During the Copper Age, Indoeuropean people migrated to Italy, approximatively four waves of population from north to the Alps have been identified
3.
Ancient history
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Ancient history is the aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history and extending as far as the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian Cuneiform script, the term classical antiquity is often used to refer to history in the Old World from the beginning of recorded Greek history in 776 BC. This roughly coincides with the date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, the beginning of the history of ancient Rome. In India, ancient history includes the period of the Middle Kingdoms, and, in China. Historians have two major avenues which they take to better understand the ancient world, archaeology and the study of source texts, primary sources are those sources closest to the origin of the information or idea under study. Primary sources have been distinguished from secondary sources, which cite, comment on. Archaeology is the excavation and study of artefacts in an effort to interpret, archaeologists excavate the ruins of ancient cities looking for clues as to how the people of the time period lived. The study of the ancient cities of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, the city of Pompeii, an ancient Roman city preserved by the eruption of a volcano in AD79. Its state of preservation is so great that it is a window into Roman culture and provided insight into the cultures of the Etruscans. The Terracotta Army, the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in ancient China, the discovery of Knossos by Minos Kalokairinos and Sir Arthur Evans. The discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann, most of what is known of the ancient world comes from the accounts of antiquitys own historians. Although it is important to take account the bias of each ancient author. Some of the more notable ancient writers include Herodotus, Thucydides, Arrian, Plutarch, Polybius, Sima Qian, Sallust, Livy, Josephus, Suetonius, furthermore, the reliability of the information obtained from these surviving records must be considered. Few people were capable of writing histories, as literacy was not widespread in almost any culture until long after the end of ancient history, the earliest known systematic historical thought emerged in ancient Greece, beginning with Herodotus of Halicarnassus. He was also the first to distinguish between cause and immediate origins of an event, the Roman Empire was one of the ancient worlds most literate cultures, but many works by its most widely read historians are lost. Indeed, only a minority of the work of any major Roman historian has survived, prehistory is the period before written history. The early human migrations in the Lower Paleolithic saw Homo erectus spread across Eurasia 1.8 million years ago, the controlled use of fire occurred 800,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. 250,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged in Africa, 60–70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and reached Australia
4.
Prehistoric Italy
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In prehistoric times, the Italian peninsula was rather different from how it is now. During glaciations, for example, the sea level was lower, the Adriatic Sea began at what is now the Gargano Peninsula, and what is now its surface up to Venice was a fertile plain with a humid climate. The presence of Homo neanderthalensis has been demonstrated in archaeological findings dating to c.50,000 years ago, there are some twenty such sites, the most important being that of the Grotta Guattari at San Felice Circeo, on the Tyrrhenian Sea south of Rome. Other are the grotta di Fumane and the Breuil grotto, also in San Felice, the first Cro Magnon inhabitants of Italy moved across the peninusula, establishing themselves in small settlements far from each one, most on high areas. In 2011 it has discovered the most ancient Sardinian complete human skeleton at Pistoccu, in Marina di Arbus. Cardium Pottery is a Neolithic decorative style that gets its name from the imprinting of the clay with the shell of the Cardium edulis, a marine mollusk. The alternative name Impressed Ware is given by archaeologists to define this culture, because impressions can be with sharp objects other than Cardium shell. Impressed Ware is found in the zone covering Italy to the Ligurian coast as distinct from the more western Cardial beginning in Provence, France and extending to western Portugal. This pottery style gives its name to the culture of the Mediterranean Neolithic. Since the Late-Neolithic, Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, later, in the Bronze Age, megalithic structures were built also in Latium, Puglia and Sicily. The Remedello, Rinaldone and Gaudo cultures are late Neolithic cultures of Italy, traces of which are found in the present-day regions of Lombardy, Tuscany, Latium. They are sometimes described as Eneolithic cultures, due to their use of copper tools. The earliest Statue menhirs, frequently depicting weapons, were erected by the populations of northern Italy and this sculptural tradition of possible steppe origin, lasted in some regions well into the Bronze Age and even into the Iron Age. The Beaker culture marks the transition between the Eneolitichic and the early Bronze Age and it was followed in the Middle Bronze Age by the facies of the pile dwellings and of the dammed settlements. Located in Sardinia, the Nuragic civilization, who lasted from the early Bronze Age to the second century A. D and it takes its name from the characteristic Nuraghe. The nuraghe towers are considered the best-preserved and largest megalithic remains in Europe. Their effective use is debated, while most scholars considered them as fortresses. A warrior and mariner people, the ancient Sardinians held flourishing trades with the other Mediterranean peoples, another important element of this civilitation are the Giants of Monte Prama, perhaps the oldest anthropomorphic statues of the western Mediterranean sea
5.
Etruscan civilization
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The Etruscan civilization is the modern name given to a powerful and wealthy civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio. Culture that is identifiably Etruscan developed in Italy after about 800 BC, the latter gave way in the 7th century BC to a culture that was influenced by ancient Greece, Magna Graecia, and Phoenicia. The decline was gradual, but by 500 BC the political destiny of Italy had passed out of Etruscan hands, the last Etruscan cities were formally absorbed by Rome around 100 BC. Politics were based on the city, and probably the family unit. In their heyday, the Etruscan elite grew very rich through trade with the Celtic world to the north and the Greeks to the south, archaic Greece had a huge influence on their art and architecture, and Greek mythology was evidently very familiar to them. The study also excluded recent Anatolian connection, the ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī. Their Roman name is the origin of the terms Tuscany, which refers to their heartland, and Etruria, which can refer to their wider region. In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians, from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī, Tyrrhēnia, the word may also be related to the Hittite Taruisa. The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, which was syncopated to Rasna or Raśna, the origins of the Etruscans are mostly lost in prehistory, although Greek historians as early as the 5th century BC, repeatedly associated the Tyrrhenians with Pelasgians. Strabo as well as the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus make mention of the Tyrrhenians as pirates, pliny the Elder put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north and wrote in his Natural History, Adjoining these the Noricans are the Raeti and Vindelici. All are divided into a number of states, the Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the Gauls, their leader was named Raetus. Historians have no literature and no original Etruscan texts of religion or philosophy, therefore, much of what is known about this civilization is derived from grave goods, another source of genetic data on Etruscan origins is from four ancient breeds of cattle. Analyzing the mitochondrial DNA of these and seven other breeds of Italian cattle, the other Italian breeds were linked to northern Europe. Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania, some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly consumed by greater, more powerful neighbours. However, it is certain that the structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC and this led the Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage, whose interests also collided with the Greeks. Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean, from the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces
6.
Magna Graecia
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The settlers who began arriving in the 8th century BC brought with them their Hellenic civilization, which was to leave a lasting imprint in Italy, such as in the culture of ancient Rome. Most notably the Roman poet Ovid referred to the south of Italy as Magna Graecia in his poem Fasti, according to Strabo, Magna Graecias colonization started already at the time of the Trojan War and lasted for several centuries. Also during that period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and they included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of Italy Magna Graecia since it was so densely inhabited by the Greeks, the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria, Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions. With colonization, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites, an original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic civilisations. Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like Neapolis, Syracuse, Acragas Paestum, other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum, Epizephyrian Locri, Rhegium, Croton, Thurii, Elea, Nola, Ancona, Syessa, Bari and others. Following the Pyrrhic War in the 3rd century BC, Magna Graecia was absorbed into the Roman Republic, a remarkable example of the influence is the Griko-speaking minority that still exists today in the Italian regions of Calabria and Apulia. Griko is the name of a language combining ancient Doric, Byzantine Greek, there is a rich oral tradition and Griko folklore, limited now but once numerous, to around 30,000 people, most of them having become absorbed into the surrounding Italian element. Some scholars, such as Gerhard Rohlfs, argue that the origins of Griko may ultimately be traced to the colonies of Magna Graecia, one example is the Griko people, some of whom still maintain their Greek language and customs. For example, Greeks re-entered the region in the 16th and 17th century in reaction to the conquest of the Peloponnese by the Ottoman Empire, especially after the end of the Siege of Coron, large numbers of Greeks took refuge in the areas of Calabria, Salento and Sicily. Greeks from Coroni, the so-called Coronians, were nobles, who brought with them substantial movable property and they were granted special privileges and tax exemptions. Other Greeks who moved to Italy came from the Mani Peninsula of the Peloponnese, the Maniots were known for their proud military traditions and for their bloody vendettas, many of which still continue today. Another group of Maniot Greeks moved to Corsica, Ancient Greek dialects Greeks in Italy Italiotes Graia Graïke Graecus Griko people Griko language Hellenic civilization Names of the Greeks Cerchiai L. Jannelli L. Longo F. The Greek Cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily, in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. 21 June,2005,17,19 GMT18,19 UK, salentinian Peninsula, Greece and Greater Greece. Traditional Griko song performed by Ghetonia, traditional Griko song performed by amateur local group. Second Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of Southern Italy, the Greeks in the West, genetic signatures of the Hellenic colonisation in southern Italy and Sicily
7.
Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
8.
Roman Italy
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Roman Italy was created officially by the Roman emperor Augustus with the Latin name Italia. It was the first time in history that the Italian Peninsula was united under the same name, in the year 292, the three islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily were added to Roman Italy by Diocletian. Roman Italy remained united until the sixth century, when it was divided between the Byzantine Empire and territories of the Germanic peoples, since then, Italia remained divided for nearly thirteen centuries until 1861 when it was reunited in a similar way in the modern Kingdom of Italy. Italy was the name of the division of the Italian Peninsula during the Roman era. It was not a province, but became the territory of the city of Rome, following the end of the Social War, Rome had allowed its Italian allies full rights in Roman society and granted the Roman citizenship to all the Italic peoples. Although not founded as a city in 330, Constantinople gained in importance. It finally gained the rank of capital when given an urban prefect in 359. In 402, the capital was moved to Ravenna from Milan, the name Italia covered an area whose borders evolved over time. Under Augustus, the peoples of todays Aosta Valley and of the western and northern Alps were subjugated, and the Italian eastern border was brought to the Arsia in Istria. Finally, in the late 3rd century, Italy came to include the islands of Corsica and Sardinia and Sicily, as well as Raetia, the city of Emona was the easternmost town of Italy. At the beginning of the era, Italy was a collection of territories with different political statuses. Some cities, called municipia, had independence from Rome, while others. The Italian economy flourished, agriculture, handicraft and industry had a sensible growth, the Italian population may have grown as well, three census were ordered by Augustus, to record the number of Roman citizens throughout the empire. The surviving totals were 4,063,000 in 28 BC,4,233,000 in 8 BC, and 4,937,000 in AD14, but it is still debated whether these counted all citizens, all adult male citizens, or citizens sui iuris. During the Crisis of the Third Century the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the pressures of invasions, military anarchy and civil wars. In 284, emperor Diocletian restored political stability and he carried out thorough administrative reforms to maintain order. He created the so-called Tetrarchy whereby the empire was ruled by four co-emperors and he decreased the size of the Roman provinces by doubling their number to reduce the power of the provincial governors. He grouped the provinces into several dioceses and put them under the supervision of the imperial vicarius, during the Crisis of the Third Century the importance of Rome declined because she was far from the troubled frontiers
9.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
10.
Italy in the Middle Ages
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Late Antiquity in Italy lingered on into the 7th century under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and the Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty, the Byzantine Papacy until the mid 8th century. The Middle Ages proper begin as the Byzantine Empire was weakening under the pressure of the Muslim conquests, Lombard rule ended with the invasion of Charlemagne in 773, who established the Kingdom of Italy and the Papal States. In the 11th century began a development unique to Italy. On the other hand, the Italian city states were in a state of constant warfare, adding to, each city aligned itself with one faction or the other, yet was divided internally between the two warring parties, Guelfs and Ghibellines. Since the 13th century, these wars had increasingly been fought by mercenaries, giving rise to the Italian institution of condottieri and the Swiss mercenary culture. The precarious balance between these powers came to an end in 1494 as the duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza sought the aid of Charles VIII of France against Venice, triggering the Italian War of 1494–98. The House of Habsburg would control Italy for the duration of the modern period. Italy was invaded by the Visigoths in the 5th century, the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, was deposed in 476 by an Eastern Germanic general, Odoacer. He subsequently ruled in Italy for seventeen years as rex gentium, theoretically under the suzerainty of the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno, the administration remained essentially the same as that under the Western Roman Empire, and gave religious freedoms to the Christians. Odoacer fought against the Vandals, who had occupied Sicily, in 489, however, Emperor Zeno decided to oust the Ostrogoths, a foederatum people living in the Danube, by sending them into Italy. On February 25,493 Theodoric the Great defeated Odoacer and became the king of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric, who had lived long in Constantinople, is now generally considered a Romanized German, and he in fact ruled over Italy largely through Roman personnel. The reign of Theodoric is generally considered a period of recovery for the country, infrastructures were repaired, frontiers were expanded, and the economy well cared for. The Latin culture flourished for the last time with figures like Boethius, Theodorics minister, however, Theodorics successors were not equal to him. This conflict, known as Gothic Wars, destroyed much of the life that had survived the barbarian invasions. Town life did not disappear, but they became smaller and considerably more primitive than they had been in Roman times, subsistence agriculture employed the bulk of the Italian population. Wars, famines, and disease epidemics had an effect on the demographics of Italy. The agricultural estates of the Roman era did not disappear and they produced an agricultural surplus that was sold in towns, however slavery was replaced by other labour systems such as serfdom. The withdrawal of Byzantine armies allowed another Germanic people, the Lombards, cividale del Friuli was the first main centre to fall, while the Byzantine resistance concentrated in the coast areas
11.
Odoacer
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Flavius Odoacer, also known as Flavius Odovacer, was a soldier who in 476 became the first King of Italy. His reign is seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire. Though the real power in Italy was in his hands, he represented himself as the client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos death in 480, Odoacer introduced few important changes into the administrative system of Italy. He had the support of the Roman Senate and was able to land to his followers without much opposition. Unrest among his warriors led to violence in 477–478, but no such disturbances occurred during the period of his reign. Although Odoacer was an Arian Christian, he intervened in the affairs of the orthodox. Probably of Scirian descent, Odoacer was a leader in Italy who led the revolt of Herulian, Rugian. With the backing of the Roman Senate, Odoacer thenceforth ruled Italy autonomously, paying lip service to the authority of Julius Nepos, the last Western emperor, and Zeno, upon Nepos murder in 480 Odoacer invaded Dalmatia, to punish the murderers. He did so, executing the conspirators, but within two years also conquered the region and incorporated it into his domain. When Illus, master of soldiers of the Eastern Empire, asked for Odoacer’s help in 484 in his struggle to depose Zeno, the emperor responded first by inciting the Rugi of present-day Austria to attack Italy. During the winter of 487–488 Odoacer crossed the Danube and defeated the Rugi in their own territory, Zeno also appointed the Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great who was menacing the borders of the Eastern Empire, to be king of Italy, turning one troublesome, nominal vassal against another. Theoderic invaded Italy in 489 and by August 490 had captured almost the entire peninsula, the city surrendered on 5 March 493, Theoderic invited Odoacer to a banquet of reconciliation and there killed him. Odoacer is the earliest ruler of Italy for whom an autograph of any of his legal acts has survived to the current day. The larger portion of a record of Odoacer granting properties in Sicily, except for the fact that he was not considered Roman, Odoacers ethnic origins are not completely known. Both the Anonymus Valesianus and John of Antioch state his fathers name was Edeko, since Sebastian Tillemont in the 17th century, all three have been considered to be the same person. In his Getica, Jordanes describes Odoacer as king of the Turcilingi, however, in his Romana, the same author defines him as a member of the Rugii. The Consularia Italica calls him king of the Heruli, while Theophanes appears to be guessing when he calls him a Goth, marcellinus Comes calls him the king of the Goths. One of these is that his name, Odoacer, for which an etymology in Germanic languages had not been found, could be a form of the Turkish Ot-toghar
12.
Ostrogothic Kingdom
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The Ostrogothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of Italy, was established by the Ostrogoths in Italy and neighbouring areas from 493 to 553. Under Theoderic, its first king, the Ostrogothic kingdom reached its zenith, most of the social institutions of the late Western Roman Empire were preserved during his rule. Theodoric called himself Gothorum Romanorumque rex, demonstrating his desire to be a leader for both peoples, starting in 535, the Eastern Roman Empire invaded Italy under Justinian I. The Ostrogothic ruler at that time, Witiges, could not defend successfully and was captured when the capital Ravenna fell. The Ostrogoths rallied around a new leader, Totila, and largely managed to reverse the conquest, the last king of the Ostrogothic Kingdom was Teia. The Ostrogoths were the branch of the Goths. They settled and established a state in Dacia, but during the late 4th century. After the collapse of the Hunnic empire in 454, large numbers of Ostrogoths were settled by Emperor Marcian in the Roman province of Pannonia as foederati, but in 460, during the reign of Leo I, because the payment of annual sums had ceased, they ravaged Illyricum. Peace was concluded in 461, whereby the young Theoderic Amal, son of Theodemir of the Amals, was sent as a hostage to Constantinople, where he received a Roman education. The period 477-483 saw a complex three-way struggle among Theoderic the Amal, who had succeeded his father in 474, Theodoric Strabo, in this conflict, alliances shifted regularly, and large parts of the Balkans were devastated by it. In the end, after Strabos death in 481, Zeno came to terms with Theoderic, parts of Moesia and Dacia ripensis were ceded to the Goths, and Theoderic was named magister militum praesentalis and consul for 484. Barely a year later, Theoderic and Zeno fell out, orestes had reneged on the promise of land in Italy for Odoacers troops, a pledge made to ensure their neutrality in his attack on Nepos. Odoacer retained the Roman administrative system, cooperated actively with the Roman Senate and he evicted the Vandals from Sicily in 477, and in 480 he occupied Dalmatia after the murder of Julius Nepos. An agreement was reached between Zeno and Theoderic, stipulating that Theoderic, if victorious, was to rule in Italy as the emperors representative. Theoderic with his people set out from Moesia in the autumn of 488, passed through Dalmatia, the first confrontation with the army of Odoacer was at the river Isonzo on August 28. Odoacer was defeated and withdrew towards Verona, where a month later another battle was fought, resulting in a bloody, Odoacer fled to his capital at Ravenna, while the larger part of his army under Tufa surrendered to the Goths. Theoderic then sent Tufa and his men against Odoacer, but he changed his allegiance again, in 490, Odoacer was thus able to campaign against Theoderic, take Milan and Cremona and besiege the main Gothic base at Ticinum. At that point, however, the Visigoths intervened, the siege of Ticinum was lifted, Odoacer fled again to Ravenna, while the Senate and many Italian cities declared themselves for Theoderic
13.
Vandal Kingdom
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The Vandal Kingdom or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans was a kingdom established by the Germanic Vandals under Gaiseric in North Africa and the Mediterranean from 435 AD to 534 AD. The Kingdom was conquered by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the Vandalic War, although primarily remembered for their persecution of orthodox Nicene Christians, the Vandals were also patrons of learning. Grand building projects continued, schools flourished and North Africa fostered many of the most innovative writers, the Vandals, under their new king Genseric, crossed to Africa in 429. According to Procopius, the Vandals came to Africa at the request of Bonifacius, however, it has been suggested that the Vandals migrated to Africa in search of safety, they had been attacked by a Roman army in 422 and had failed to seal a treaty with them. Advancing eastwards along the coast, the Vandals laid siege to the city of Hippo Regius in 430. Inside, Saint Augustine and his priests prayed for relief from the invaders, on 28 August 430, three months into the siege, St. Augustine died, perhaps from starvation or stress, as the wheat fields outside the city lay dormant and unharvested. Peace was made between the Romans and the Vandals in 435 through a treaty giving the Vandals control of coastal Numidia, geiseric chose to break the treaty in 439 when he invaded the province of Africa Proconsularis and laid siege to Carthage. The city was captured without a fight, the Vandals entered the city while most of the inhabitants were attending the races at the hippodrome. Genseric made it his capital, and styled himself the King of the Vandals and Alans, conquering Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Malta and the Balearic Islands, he built his kingdom into a powerful state. Historian Cameron suggests that the new Vandal rule may not have been unwelcome to the population of North Africa as the landowners were generally unpopular. The impression given by such as Victor of Vita, Quodvultdeus. However, recent archaeological investigations have challenged this assertion, although Carthages Odeon was destroyed, the street pattern remained the same and some public buildings were renovated. The political centre of Carthage was the Byrsa Hill, new industrial centres emerged within towns during this period. When the Vandals raided Sicily in 440, the Western Roman Empire was too preoccupied with war in Gaul to react, theodosius II, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, dispatched an expedition to deal with the Vandals in 441, however it only progressed as far as Sicily. The Western Empire under Valentinian III secured peace with the Vandals in 442, under the treaty the Vandals gained Byzacena, Tripolitania, part of Numidia, and confirmed their control of Proconsular Africa. During the next years, with a large fleet, Genseric looted the coasts of the Eastern and Western Empires. After Attila the Huns death, however, the Romans could afford to turn their back to the Vandals. In an effort to bring the Vandals into the fold of the Empire, before this treaty could be carried out, however, politics again played a crucial part in the blunders of Rome
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Kingdom of the Lombards
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The king was traditionally elected by the highest-ranking aristocrats, the dukes, as several attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty failed. The kingdom was subdivided into a number of duchies, ruled by semi-autonomous dukes. The capital of the kingdom and the center of its life was Pavia in the modern northern Italian region of Lombardy. The Lombard invasion of Italy was opposed by the Byzantine Empire, because of this division, the southern duchies were considerably more autonomous than the smaller northern duchies. Over time, the Lombards gradually adopted Roman titles, names, by the time Paul the Deacon was writing in the late 8th century, the Lombardic language, dress and hairstyles had all disappeared. Initially the Lombards were Arianist Christians, at odds with the Papacy both religiously and politically, however, by the end of the 7th century, their conversion to Catholicism was all but complete. Nevertheless, their conflict with the Papacy continued and was responsible for their loss of power in the face of the Franks. Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, adopted the title King of the Lombards, although he never managed to control of Benevento. The only evidence for their use at the level comes from the Duchy of Benevento. The existence of seal rings testifies to the tenacity of Roman traditions of government, in the 6th century Byzantine Emperor Justinian attempted to reassert imperial authority in the territories of the Western Roman Empire. Problems were further exacerbated by widespread famine and a plague pandemic. In the spring of 568 the Lombards, led by King Alboin, moved from Pannonia, the Lombard arrival broke the political unity of the Italian Peninsula for the first time since the Roman conquest. The peninsula was now torn between territories ruled by the Lombards and the Byzantines, with boundaries that changed over time, the territories which remained under Byzantine control were called Romania in northeastern Italy and had its stronghold in the Exarchate of Ravenna. Arriving in Italy, King Alboin gave control of the Eastern Alps to one of his most trusted lieutenants, Gisulf, the duchy, established in the Roman town of Forum Iulii, constantly fought with the Slavic population across the Gorizia border. Justified by its military needs, the Duchy of Friuli thus had greater autonomy compared to other duchies of Langobardia Maior until the reign of Liutprand. Over time, other Lombard Duchies were created in cities of the kingdom. This was dictated primarily by military needs as Dukes were primarily military commanders, tasked to secure control of territory. However, the collection of duchies also contributed to political fragmentation
15.
Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)
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The Kingdom of Italy was one of the constituent kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire, along with the kingdoms of Germany, Bohemia, and Burgundy. It comprised northern and central Italy, but excluded the Republic of Venice and its original capital was Pavia until the 11th century. In June 774, the collapsed and the Franks became masters of northern Italy. The southern areas remained under Lombard control in the Duchy of Benevento, Charlemagne adopted the title King of the Lombards and in 800 had himself crowned Emperor of the Romans in Rome. Members of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule Italy until the deposition of Charles the Fat in 887, until 961, the rule of Italy was continually contested by several aristocratic families from both within and without the kingdom. In 961, King Otto I of Germany, already married to Adelaide, widow of a king of Italy. He continued on to Rome, where he had himself crowned emperor on 7 February 962, the union of the crowns of Italy and Germany with that of the so-called Empire of the Romans created the Holy Roman Empire, to which Burgundy was added in 1032. The resulting wars between Guelphs and Ghibellines, the anti-imperialist and imperialist factions, respectively, were characteristic of Italian politics in the 12th–14th centuries. The Lombard League was the most famous example of this situation, though not a declared separatist movement, by the 15th century, the power of the city-states was largely broken. A series of wars in Lombardy from 1423 to 1454 further reduced the number of competing states in Italy, the next forty years were relatively peaceful in Italy, but in 1494 the peninsula was invaded by France. The resulting Great Italian Wars lasted until 1559 as control of most of the Italian states passed to King Philip II of Spain. The Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty—the same dynasty of which another branch provided the Emperors—continued to rule most of imperial Italy down to the War of the Spanish Succession, after the Imperial Reform of 1495–1512, the Italian kingdom corresponded to the unencircled territories south of the Alps. The Imperial rule in Italy came to an end with the campaigns of the French Revolutionaries in 1792–97, in 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by the last emperor, Francis II, after its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. After the Battle of Taginae, in which the Ostrogoth king Totila was killed, the battle lasted two days and Teia was killed in the fighting. The Kings of the Lombards ruled that Germanic people from their invasion of Italy in 567–68 until the Lombardic identity became lost in the ninth and tenth centuries, after 568, the Lombard kings sometimes styled themselves Kings of Italy. Upon the Lombard defeat at the 774 Siege of Pavia, the kingdom came under the Frankish domination of Charlemagne, the Iron Crown of Lombardy was used for the coronation of the Lombard kings, and the kings of Italy thereafter, for centuries. The primary sources for the Lombard kings before the Frankish conquest are the anonymous 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum, the earliest kings listed in the Origo are almost certainly legendary. They purportedly reigned during the Migration Period, the first ruler attested independently of Lombard tradition is Tato, an initial phase of strong autonomy of the many constituent duchies developed over time with growing regal authority, even if the dukes desires for autonomy were never fully achieved
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Norman conquest of southern Italy
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The Norman conquest of southern Italy spanned most of the 11th and 12th centuries, involving many battles and independent conquerors. Itinerant Norman knights arrived in the Mezzogiorno as mercenaries in the service of Lombard and Byzantine factions and these groups gathered in several places, establishing fiefdoms and states of their own, uniting and elevating their status to de facto independence within fifty years of their arrival. Unlike the Norman conquest of England, which took a few years after one battle, the conquest of southern Italy was the product of decades. Many territories were conquered independently, and only later were unified into a single state, compared to the conquest of England it was unplanned and disorganised, but equally complete. The earliest reported date of the arrival of Norman knights in southern Italy is 999, in that year, according to several sources, Norman pilgrims returning from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem via Apulia stayed with Prince Guaimar III in Salerno. The city and its environs were attacked by Saracens from Africa demanding payment of an annual tribute. While Guaimar began to collect the tribute the Normans ridiculed him and his Lombard subjects for cowardice, the Saracens fled, booty was confiscated and a grateful Guaimar asked the Normans to stay. They refused, but promised to bring his rich gifts to their compatriots in Normandy, some sources have Guaimar sending emissaries to Normandy to bring back knights, and this account of the arrival of the Normans is sometimes known as the Salerno tradition. The Salerno tradition was first recorded by Amatus of Montecassino in his Ystoire de li Normant between 1071 and 1086. Much of this information was borrowed from Amatus by Peter the Deacon for his continuation of the Chronicon Monasterii Casinensis of Leo of Ostia, beginning with the Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius in the 17th century, the Salernitan story became the accepted history. Although its factual accuracy was questioned periodically during the following centuries, another historical account of the arrival of the first Normans in Italy, the Gargano tradition, appears in primary chronicles without reference to any previous Norman presence. Some scholars have combined the Salerno and Gargano tales, and John Julius Norwich suggested that the meeting between Melus and the Normans had been arranged by Guaimar, Melus had been in Salerno just before his visit to Monte Gargano. Another story involves the exile of a group of brothers from the Drengot family, one of the brothers, Osmund or Gilbert, murdered William Repostel in the presence of Robert I, Duke of Normandy after Repostel allegedly boasted about dishonouring his murderers daughter. Threatened with death, the Drengot brother fled with his siblings to Rome, Amatus dates the story to after 1027, and does not mention the pope. According to him, Gilberts brothers were Osmund, Ranulf, Asclettin, repostels murder is dated by all the chronicles to the reign of Robert the Magnificent and after 1027, although some scholars believe Robert was a scribal error for Richard. The earlier date is necessary if the emigration of the first Normans was connected to the Drengots, in the Histories of Ralph Glaber, Rodulfus leaves Normandy after displeasing Count Richard. The sources disagree about which brother was the leader on the southern trip, orderic and William of Jumièges, in the latters Gesta Normannorum Ducum, name Osmund, Glaber names Rudolph, and Leo, Amatus and Adhemar of Chabannes name Gilbert. According to most southern-Italian sources, the leader of the Norman contingent at the Battle of Cannae in 1018 was Gilbert, if Rudolf is identified with the Rudolf of Amatus history as a Drengot brother, he may have been the leader at Cannae
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Maritime republics
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The maritime republics of the Mediterranean Basin were thalassocratic city-states which flourished in Italy and Dalmatia during the Middle Ages. The best known among the republics are Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Ragusa. Less known are Gaeta, Ancona, Noli and they were generally republics in that they were formally independent, though most of them originated from territories once formally belonging to the Byzantine Empire. During the time of their independence, all cities had similar systems of government. The Fourth Crusade, originally intended to liberate Jerusalem, actually entailed the Venetian conquest of Zara, Venice stands out from the rest in that it maintained enormous tracts of land in Greece, Cyprus, Istria and Dalmatia until as late as the mid-17th century. The economic growth of Europe around the year 1000, together with the hazards of the trading routes. The growing independence acquired by some coastal cities gave them a role in this development. These cities, exposed to raids, organized their own defence. The independent cities formed autonomous republican governments, an expression of the merchant class that constituted the backbone of their power. The history of the maritime republics intertwines both with the launch of European expansion to the East and with the origins of capitalism as a mercantile. Using gold coins, the merchants of the Italian maritime republics began to develop new foreign exchange transactions, technological advances in navigation provided essential support for the growth of mercantile wealth. Nautical charts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries all belong to the schools of Genoa, Venice, the Crusades offered opportunities for expansion. They increasingly relied on Italian sea transport, for which the republics extracted concessions of colonies as well as a cash price, pera in Constantinople, first Genoese and later Venetian, was the largest and best known Italian trading base. The history of the maritime republics is quite varied, reflecting their different lifespans. Other republics kept their independence until the Renaissance, Pisa came under the dominion of the Republic of Florence in 1406, and Ancona came under control of the Papal States in 1532. Amalfi and Gaeta, though, lost their independence soon, the first in 1131. Amalfi, perhaps the first of the republics to play a major role, had developed extensive trade with Byzantium. Amalfitan merchants wrested the Mediterranean trade monopoly from the Arabs and founded mercantile bases in Southern Italy, amalfitans were the first to create a colony in Constantinople
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Italian city-states
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The Italian city-states were a political phenomenon of small independent states mostly in the central and northern Italian peninsula between the 9th and 15th centuries. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, urban settlements in Italy generally enjoyed a greater continuity than in the rest of western Europe, many of these towns were survivors of earlier Etruscan, Umbrian and Roman towns which had existed within the Roman Empire. The republican institutions of Rome had also survived, the very first Italian city-state can be considered the Republic of Venice, which de facto broke apart from Byzantine Empire since 742, becoming also de jure independent in the following centuries. The other first Italian city-states appeared in northern Italy as a result of a struggle to gain greater autonomy when not independent from the German Holy Roman Empire, other city-states were associated to these commune cities, like Genoa, Turin and, in the Adriatic, Ragusa. It is important to say that Venice was never subjected to the Holy Roman Empire, around 1100, Genoa and Venice emerged as independent Maritime republics. For Genoa – nominally – the Holy Roman Emperor was sovereign, pisa and Amalfi also emerged as maritime republics, trade, shipbuilding and banking helped support their powerful navies in the Mediterranean in those medieval centuries. Between the 12th and 13th centuries, Italy was vastly different from feudal Europe north of the Alps, the Peninsula was a melange of political and cultural elements, not a unified state. Marc Bloch and Fernand Braudel have argued that geography determined the history of the region, the very mountainous nature of Italys landscape was a barrier to effective inter-city communication. The Po plain, however, was an exception, it was the large contiguous area. Those that survived the longest were in the more rugged regions, such as Florence or Venice, while those Roman, urban, republican sensibilities persisted, there were many movements and changes afoot. Italy first felt the changes in Europe from the 11th to the 13th centuries and he argues that these states were mostly republics, unlike the great European monarchies of France and Spain, where absolute power was vested in rulers who could and did stifle commerce. Even northern cities and states were also notable for their merchant republics, geographically, and because of trade, Italian cities such as Venice became international trading and banking hubs and intellectual crossroads. It is estimated that the per capita income of northern Italy nearly tripled from the 11th century to the 15th century and this was a highly mobile, demographically expanding society, fueled by the rapidly expanding Renaissance commerce. In the 14th century, just as the Italian Renaissance was beginning, Italy was the capital of Western Europe. However, with the Bubonic Plague in 1348, the birth of the English woolen industry and general warfare, however, by the late 15th century Italy was again in control of trade along the Mediterranean Sea. It found a new niche in luxury items like ceramics, glassware, lace, however, Italy would never regain its strong hold on textiles. And though it was the birthplace of banking, by the 16th century German, by the 13th century, northern and central Italy had become the most literate society in the world. More than one third of the population could read in the vernacular, as could a small
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Guelphs and Ghibellines
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The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, rivalry between two parties formed a particularly important aspect of the internal politics of medieval Italy. The struggle for power between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire had arisen with the Investiture Controversy, which began in 1075, the division between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Italy, however, persisted until the 15th century. Guelph is an Italian form of the name of the House of Welf, the names were likely introduced to Italy during the reign of Frederick Barbarossa. When Frederick conducted military campaigns in Italy to expand imperial power there, the Lombard League and its allies were defending the liberties of the urban communes against the Emperors encroachments and became known as Guelphs. The Ghibellines were thus the party, while the Guelphs supported the Pope. Broadly speaking, Guelphs tended to come from wealthy mercantile families, the Lombard League defeated Frederick at the Battle of Legnano in 1176. Frederick recognized the autonomy of the cities of the Lombard league under his nominal suzerainty. The division developed its own dynamic in the politics of medieval Italy, smaller cities tended to be Ghibelline if the larger city nearby was Guelph, as Guelph Republic of Florence and Ghibelline Republic of Siena faced off at the Battle of Montaperti,1260. Pisa maintained a staunch Ghibelline stance against her fiercest rivals, the Guelph Republic of Genoa, adherence to one of the parties could therefore be motivated by local or regional political reasons. Within cities, party allegiances differed from guild to guild, rione to rione, moreover, sometimes traditionally Ghibelline cities allied with the Papacy, while Guelph cities were even punished with interdict. Contemporaries did not use the terms Guelph and Ghibellines much until about 1250, at the beginning of the 13th century, Philip of Swabia, a Hohenstaufen, and his son-in-law Otto of Brunswick, a Welf, were rivals for the imperial throne. Philip was supported by the Ghibellines as a relative of Frederick I, Frederick II also introduced this division to the Crusader states in the Levant during the Sixth Crusade. After the death of Frederick II in 1250 the Ghibellines were supported by Conrad IV of Germany and later Manfred, King of Sicily, the Sienese Ghibellines inflicted a noteworthy defeat on Florentine Guelphs at the Battle of Montaperti. In that period the stronghold of Italian Ghibellines was the city of Forlì and that city remained with the Ghibelline factions, partly as a means of preserving its independence, rather than out of loyalty to the temporal power, as Forlì was nominally in the Papal States. Over the centuries, the papacy tried several times to control of Forlì. Essentially the two sides were now fighting either against German influence, or against the power of the Pope. In Florence and elsewhere the Guelphs usually included merchants and burghers and they also adopted peculiar customs such as wearing a feather on a particular side of their hats, or cutting fruit a particular way, according to their affiliation
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Early modern period
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The early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era. Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the period witnessed the exploration and colonization of the Americas and the rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe. The historical powers became involved in trade, as the exchange of goods, plants, animals, and food crops extended to the Old World. The Columbian Exchange greatly affected the human environment, New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the early modern period. This process began in the medieval North Italian city-states, particularly Genoa, Venice, the early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. The European colonization of the Americas, Asia, and Africa occurred during the 15th to 19th centuries, the early modern trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Historians typically date the end of the modern period when the French Revolution of the 1790s began the modern period. Early modern themes Other In 16th century China, the Ming Dynastys economy was stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, Spanish. China became involved in a new trade of goods, plants, animals. Trade with Early Modern Europe and Japan brought in massive amounts of silver, during the last decades of the Ming the flow of silver into China was greatly diminished, thereby undermining state revenues and the entire Chinese economy. This damage to the economy was compounded by the effects on agriculture of the incipient Little Ice Age, natural calamities, crop failure, the ensuing breakdown of authority and peoples livelihoods allowed rebel leaders such as Li Zicheng to challenge Ming authority. The Ming Dynasty fell around 1644 to the Qing Dynasty, which was the last ruling dynasty of China, during its reign, the Qing Dynasty became highly integrated with Chinese culture. The Azuchi-Momoyama period saw the unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Edo period from 1600 to 1868 characterized early modern Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period gets its name from the city, Edo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, in 1392, General Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon Dynasty with a largely bloodless coup. Joseon experienced advances in science and culture, King Sejong the Great promulgated hangul, the Korean alphabet. The period saw various other cultural and technological advances as well as the dominance of neo-Confucianism over the entirety of Korea, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, invasions by the neighboring Japanese and Qing Chinese nearly overran the Korean peninsula
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Italian Renaissance
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The term Renaissance is in essence a modern one that came into currency in the 19th century, in the work of historians such as Jules Michelet and Jacob Burckhardt. The French word renaissance means Rebirth, and the era is best known for the renewed interest in the culture of classical antiquity after the period that Renaissance humanists labeled the Dark Ages. Though today perhaps best known for Italian Renaissance art and architecture, the period saw major achievements in literature, music, philosophy, Italy became the recognized European leader in all these areas by the late 15th century, and to varying degrees retained this lead until about 1600. This was despite a turbulent and generally disastrous period in Italian politics, the European Renaissance began in Tuscany, and centred in the city of Florence. It later spread to Venice, where the remains of ancient Greek culture were brought together, the Renaissance later had a significant effect on Rome, which was ornamented with some structures in the new allantico mode, then was largely rebuilt by humanist sixteenth-century popes. The Italian Renaissance peaked in the century as foreign invasions plunged the region into the turmoil of the Italian Wars. However, the ideas and ideals of the Renaissance endured and spread into the rest of Europe, setting off the Northern Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance is best known for its cultural achievements. Accounts of Renaissance literature usually begin with Petrarch and his friend, famous vernacular poets of the 15th century include the renaissance epic authors Luigi Pulci, Matteo Maria Boiardo, and Ludovico Ariosto. 15th century writers such as the poet Poliziano and the Platonist philosopher Marsilio Ficino made extensive translations from both Latin and Greek, the same is true for architecture, as practiced by Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio, and Bramante. Their works include Florence Cathedral, St. Peters Basilica in Rome, yet cultural contributions notwithstanding, some present-day historians also see the era as one of the beginning of economic regression for Italy. By the Late Middle Ages, Latium, the heartland of the Roman Empire. Rome was a city of ancient ruins, and the Papal States were loosely administered, and vulnerable to external interference such as that of France, and later Spain. The Papacy was affronted when the Avignon Papacy was created in southern France as a consequence of pressure from King Philip the Fair of France, in the south, Sicily had for some time been under foreign domination, by the Arabs and then the Normans. Sicily had prospered for 150 years during the Emirate of Sicily, in contrast Northern and Central Italy had become far more prosperous, and it has been calculated that the region was among the richest of Europe. The Crusades had built lasting trade links to the Levant, the main trade routes from the east passed through the Byzantine Empire or the Arab lands and onwards to the ports of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. Luxury goods bought in the Levant, such as spices, dyes, moreover, the inland city-states profited from the rich agricultural land of the Po valley. From France, Germany, and the Low Countries, through the medium of the Champagne fairs, land and river trade routes brought goods such as wool, wheat, and precious metals into the region. The extensive trade that stretched from Egypt to the Baltic generated substantial surpluses that allowed significant investment in mining, thus, while northern Italy was not richer in resources than many other parts of Europe, the level of development, stimulated by trade, allowed it to prosper
22.
Italian Wars
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Ludovico Sforza of Milan, seeking an ally against the Republic of Venice, encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples as a pretext. For several months, French forces moved through Italy virtually unopposed, Charles VIII made triumphant entries into Pisa on November 8,1494, Florence on November 17,1494, and Rome on December 31,1494. Upon reaching the city of Monte San Giovanni in the Kingdom of Naples, Charles VIII sent envoys to the town, the garrison killed and mutilated the envoys and sent the bodies back to the French lines. This enraged the French army so that reduced the castle in the town with blistering artillery fire on February 9,1495 and stormed the fort. This was the sack of Naples. News of the French Armys sack of Naples provoked a reaction among the city-states of Northern Italy, the League was specifically formed to resist French aggression. The League was established on 31 March after negotiations by Venice, Milan, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Later on the League consisted of the Holy Roman Empire, the Duchy of Milan, Spain, the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, the Duchy of Mantua and this coalition, effectively, cut Charles army off from returning to France. After establishing a government in Naples, Charles started to march north on his return to France. However, in the town of Fornovo he met the League army. In contemporary tradition, though, the battle counted as a Holy League victory, because the French forces had to leave, to the Italian coalition, however, it was at best a pyrrhic victory, in that its strategic outcome and long-term consequences were unfavorable. Although the League managed to force Charles VIII off the battlefield, it suffered much higher casualties and could not prevent the opposing army crossing the Italian lands as it returned to France. As a result of Charles VIIIs expedition, the states of Italy were shown once. In fact, the individual Italian states could not field armies comparable to those of the feudal monarchies of Europe in numbers. Thus, Charles VIII lost all that he conquered in Italy, King Charles VIII died on April 7,1498 and was succeeded to the throne of France by his cousin, Louis II, Duke of Orléans, who became Louis XII of France. Ludovico Sforza retained his throne in Milan until 1499, when Charless successor, Louis XII of France, invaded Lombardy, Louis XII justified his claim to the Duchy of Milan by right of his paternal grandfather, Louis duc dOrléans having married Valentina Visconti in 1387. Valentina Visconti was the heir to the Duchy of Milan in the Visconti dynasty, the marriage contract between Valentina Visconti and Louis, duc dOrléans, guaranteed that in failure of male heirs, she would inherit the Visconti dominions. However, when the Visconti dynasty died out in 1447, the Milanese ignored the Orleans claim to the Duchy of Milan, however, bitter factionalism arose under the new republic which set the stage for Francisco Sforza to seize control of Milan in 1450
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Italian unification
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The process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and was completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The memory of the Risorgimento is central to both Italian politics and Italian historiography, for short period is one of the most contested. Italian nationalism was based among intellectuals and political activists, often operating from exile, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Roman province of Italy remained united under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and later disputed between the Kingdom of the Lombards and the Byzantine Empire. Following conquest by the Frankish Empire, the title of King of Italy merged with the office of Holy Roman Emperor. However, the emperor was a foreigner who had little concern for the governance of Italy as a state, as a result. This situation persisted through the Renaissance but began to deteriorate with the rise of modern nation-states in the modern period. Italy, including the Papal States, then became the site of proxy wars between the powers, notably the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and France. Harbingers of national unity appeared in the treaty of the Italic League, in 1454, leading Renaissance Italian writers Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini expressed opposition to foreign domination. Petrarch stated that the ancient valour in Italian hearts is not yet dead in Italia Mia, Niccolò Machiavelli later quoted four verses from Italia Mia in The Prince, which looked forward to a political leader who would unite Italy to free her from the barbarians. I am an Italian, he explained, the French Republic spread republican principles, and the institutions of republican governments promoted citizenship over the rule of the Bourbons and Habsburgs and other dynasties. The reaction against any outside control challenged Napoleons choice of rulers, as Napoleons reign began to fail, the rulers he had installed tried to keep their thrones further feeding nationalistic sentiments. After Napoleon fell, the Congress of Vienna restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments, vincenzo Gioberti, a Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian states under leadership of the Pope in his 1842 book, Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians. Pope Pius IX at first appeared interested but he turned reactionary, Giuseppe Mazzini and Carlo Cattaneo wanted the unification of Italy under a federal republic. That proved too extreme for most nationalists, the middle position was proposed by Cesare Balbo as a confederation of separate Italian states led by Piedmont. One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the Carbonari, a political discussion group formed in Southern Italy early in the 19th century. After 1815, Freemasonry in Italy was repressed and discredited due to its French connections, a void was left that the Carbonari filled with a movement that closely resembled Freemasonry but with a commitment to Italian nationalism and no association with Napoleon and his government. The response came from middle class professionals and business men and some intellectuals, the Carbonari disowned Napoleon but nevertheless were inspired by the principles of the French Revolution regarding liberty, equality and fraternity. They developed their own rituals, and were strongly anticlerical, the Carbonari movement spread across Italy
24.
Modern history
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Modern history, the modern period or the modern era, is the global historiographical approach to the timeframe after the Post-classical history. It took all of history up to 1804 for the worlds population to reach 1 billion. Contemporary history is the span of historic events from approximately 1945 that are relevant to the present time. Some events, while not without precedent, show a new way of perceiving the world, the concept of modernity interprets the general meaning of these events and seeks explanations for major developments. The fundamental difficulty of studying modern history is the fact that a plethora of it has been documented up to the present day and it is imperative to consider the reliability of the information obtained from these records. In the pre-modern era, many peoples sense of self and purpose was expressed via a faith in some form of deity. Pre-modern cultures have not been thought of creating a sense of distinct individuality, religious officials, who often held positions of power, were the spiritual intermediaries to the common person. It was only through intermediaries that the general masses had access to the divine. Tradition was sacred to ancient cultures and was unchanging and the order of ceremony. The term modern was coined in the 16th century to present or recent times. New information about the world was discovered via empirical observation, versus the use of reason. The term Early Modern was introduced in the English language in the 1930s, to distinguish the time between what we call Middle Ages and time of the late Enlightenment. It is important to note that these terms stem from European history, in the Contemporary era, there were various socio-technological trends. Regarding the 21st century and the modern world, the Information Age and computers were forefront in use, not completely ubiquitous. The development of Eastern powers was of note, with China, in the Eurasian theater, the European Union and Russian Federation were two forces recently developed. A concern for Western world, if not the world, was the late modern form of terrorism. The modern period has been a period of significant development in the fields of science, politics, warfare and it has also been an age of discovery and globalization. During this time, the European powers and later their colonies, began a political, economic, the modern era is closely associated with the development of individualism, capitalism, urbanization and a belief in the possibilities of technological and political progress
25.
Military history of Italy during World War I
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This article is about Italian military operations in World War I. Although member of the Triple Alliance, the Kingdom of Italy did not join the Central Powers, the German Empire and the Empire of Austria-Hungary, when the war started in August 1914. Almost a year after the commencement, after secret parallel negotiations with both sides Italy entered the war on the side of the Allied Powers. Italy fought mostly against Austria-Hungary along the border, including high up in the now-Italian Alps. In October 1918 the Italians attacked again, the Austrian army broke, and the Italians drove deep into Austrian territory, leading to the collapse of Austria-Hungary. Fighting ended on 3 November 1918, Italy and the Allies had been victorious. Italian armed forces were involved in the Western Front and in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. At the end of World War I, Italy was recognized a permanent seat in the League of Nations executive council along with Britain, France, Italy was a member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Despite this, in the years before the war, Italy had enhanced its diplomatic relationships with the United Kingdom and France. This was because the Italian government had grown convinced that support of Austria would not gain Italy the territories it wanted, Trieste, Istria, Zara and Dalmatia, in fact, a secret agreement signed with France in 1902 sharply conflicted with Italys membership in the Triple Alliance. Thereafter Salandra and the minister of Foreign Affairs, Sidney Sonnino, pro-interventionist socialists believed that, once that weapons had been distributed to the people, they could have transformed the war into a revolution. The negotiation with the Allies led to the London Pact, signed by Sonnino without the approval of the Italian Parliament, other agreements concerned the sovereignty of the port of Valona, the province of Antalya in Turkey and part of the German colonies in Africa. On 3 May 1915 Italy officially revoked the Triple Alliance, in the following days Giolitti and the neutralist majority of the Parliament opposed declaring war, while nationalist crowds demonstrated in public areas for it. On 23 May, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary and this was followed by declarations of war on the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria and the German Empire. The front on the Austrian border was 650 km long, stretching from the Stelvio Pass to the Adriatic Sea, Italian forces were numerically superior but this advantage was negated by the difficult terrain. Further, the Italians lacked strategic and tactical leadership, the Italian commander-in-chief was Luigi Cadorna, a staunch proponent of the frontal assault whose tactics cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers. His plan was to attack on the Isonzo front, with the dream of breaking over the Karst Plateau into the Carniolan Basin, taking Ljubljana and threatening the Austro-Hungarian Empires capital Vienna. It was a Napoleonic plan, which had no chance of success in an age of barbed wire, machine guns
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Italian Fascism
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Italian Fascism, also known simply as Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, as developed in Italy. According to Sternhell “most syndicalist leaders were among the founders of the Fascist movement, ” who, in years, gained key posts in Mussolini’s regime. ”Other historians argued that Fascism billed itself “not only as an alternative. This economic system intended to resolve conflict through collaboration between the classes. It was opposed to Marxist socialism because of its opposition to nationalism. It believed the success of Italian nationalism required respect for tradition, the National Fascist Party founded in 1921, declared that the party was to serve as a revolutionary militia placed at the service of the nation. It follows a policy based on three principles, order, discipline, hierarchy, Mussolini often referred to Fascist Italy during World War II as the proletarian nations that rise up against the plutocrats. It identifies modern Italy as the heir to the Roman Empire and Italy during the Renaissance, Italian Fascism historically sought to forge a strong Italian Empire as a Third Rome, identifying ancient Rome as the First Rome, and Renaissance-era Italy as the Second Rome. Italian Fascism has directly promoted imperialism, such as within the Doctrine of Fascism, ghostwritten by Giovanni Gentile on behalf of Mussolini, The Fascist state is a will to power, the Roman tradition is here a powerful force. According to the Doctrine of Fascism, an empire is not only a territorial or military or mercantile concept, but a spiritual and moral one. One can think of an empire, that is, a nation, Fascism sought the incorporation of claimed unredeemed territories to Italy. Mussolini identified Dalmatia as having strong Italian cultural roots for centuries via the Roman Empire, the Fascist regime imposed mandatory Italianization upon the German and South Slav populations living within Italys borders. This resulted in significant violence against South Slavs deemed to be resisting Italianization, the Fascist regime endorsed Albanian irredentism, directed against the predominantly Albanian-populated Kosovo and Epirus - particularly in Chameria inhabited by a substantial number of Albanians. The Fascist regime claimed the Ionian Islands as Italian territory, on the basis that the islands had belonged to the Venetian Republic from the mid-14th until the 18th century. To the west of Italy, the Fascists claimed that the territories of Corsica, Nice, as a result, Piedmont-Sardinia was pressured to concede Nice and Savoy to France in exchange for France accepting the unification of Italy. The Fascist regime produced literature on Corsica that presented evidence of the Italianità of the island, the Fascist regime produced literature on Nice that justified that Nice was an Italian land based on historic, ethnic, and linguistic grounds. The Fascists quoted Medieval Italian scholar Petrarch who said The border of Italy is the Var, to the north of Italy, the Fascist regime in the 1930s had designs on the largely Italian-populated region of Ticino and the Romansch-populated region of Graubünden in Switzerland. In November 1938, Mussolini declared to the Grand Fascist Council, the Fascist regime accused the Swiss government of oppressing the Romansch people in Graubünden. Mussolini argued that Romansch was an Italian dialect and thus Graubünden should be incorporated into Italy, Ticino was also claimed because the region had belonged to the Duchy of Milan from the mid-fourteenth century until 1515
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Italian Empire
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The Italian Empire comprised the colonies, protectorates, concessions, dependencies and trust territories of the Kingdom of Italy and, after 1946, the Italian Republic. The genesis of the Italian colonial empire was the purchase, in 1869 and this was taken over by the Italian government in 1882, becoming Italys first overseas territory. Over the next two decades the pace of European acquisitions in Africa increased, causing the so-called Scramble for Africa. By the start of the First World War in 1914, Italy had acquired in Africa alone a colony on the Red Sea coast, outside of Africa, Italy possessed a small concession in Tientsin in China and the Dodecanese Islands off the coast of Turkey. During the First World War, Italy occupied southern Albania to prevent it falling to Austria-Hungary. In 1917, it established a protectorate over Albania, which remained in place until 1920, the Fascist government that came to power with Benito Mussolini in 1922 sought to increase the size of the Italian empire and to satisfy the claims of Italian irredentists. In 1935–36, in its invasion of Ethiopia Italy was successful. In 1939, Italy invaded Albania and incorporated it into the Fascist state and it was forced in the final peace to relinquish sovereignty over all its colonies. It was granted a United Nations trust to administer former Italian Somaliland in 1950 under United Nations supervision, when Somalia became independent in 1960, Italys eight-decade experience with colonialism ended. The unification of Italy brought with it a belief that Italy deserved its own empire, alongside those of the other powers of Europe. Italy had long considered the Ottoman province of Tunisia, where a community of Tunisian Italians lived. It did not consider annexing it until 1879, when it became apparent that Britain, Italys search for colonies continued until February 1886, when, by secret agreement with Britain, it annexed the port of Massawa in Eritrea on the Red Sea from the crumbling Egyptian Empire. Italian annexation of Massawa denied the Ethiopian Empire of Yohannes IV an outlet to the sea, at the same time, Italy occupied territory on the south side of the horn of Africa, forming what would become Italian Somaliland. However, Italy coveted Ethiopia itself and, in 1887, Italian Prime Minister Agostino Depretis ordered an invasion and this invasion was halted after the loss of five hundred Italian troops at the Battle of Dogali. Depretiss successor, Prime Minister Francesco Crispi signed the Treaty of Wuchale in 1889 with Menelik II, the new emperor. This treaty ceded Ethiopian territory around Massawa to Italy to form the colony of Eritrea, Relations between Italy and Menelik deteriorated over the next few years until the First Italo-Ethiopian War broke out in 1895, when Crispi ordered Italian troops into the country. Outnumbered and poorly equipped, the result was a defeat for Italy at the hands of Ethiopian forces at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. On 7 September 1901, a concession in Tientsin was ceded to the Kingdom of Italy by Imperial China and it was administered by the Italian consul in Tientsin
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Military history of Italy during World War II
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In 1943 Benito Mussolini was ousted and arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel III, provoking a civil war. Balkan and Mediterranean hegemony was predicated by ancient Roman dominance in the same regions, there were designs for a protectorate over Albania and for the annexation of Dalmatia, as well as economic and military control of Yugoslavia and Greece. The regime also sought to establish protective patron–client relationships with Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, in 1935, Italy initiated the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, a nineteenth-century colonial campaign waged out of due time. The campaign gave rise to talk on raising a native Ethiopian army to help conquer Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The war also marked a shift towards a more aggressive Italian foreign policy and also exposed vulnerabilities of the British and this in turn created the opportunity Mussolini needed to begin to realize his imperial goals. In 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out, from the beginning, Italy played an important role in the conflict. Their military contribution was so vast, that it played a role in the victory of the rebel forces led by Francisco Franco. Mussolini referred to this treaty as the creation of a Berlin-Rome Axis, the aftermath of the treaty saw the increasing ties between Italy and Germany, and Mussolini falling under Adolf Hitlers influence from which he never escaped. In October 1938, in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, the French refused the demands, believing the true Italian intention was the territorial acquisition of Nice, Corsica, Tunisia, and Djibouti. On 30 November 1938, Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano addressed the Chamber of Deputies on the aspirations of the Italian people and was met with shouts of Nice. Later that day, Mussolini addressed the Fascist Grand Council on the subject of what he called the immediate goals of Fascist dynamism. These were Albania, Tunisia, Corsica, a part of France, the Ticino, a canton of Switzerland, and all French territory east of the River Var, including Nice. Beginning in 1939 Mussolini often voiced his contention that Italy required uncontested access to the worlds oceans, on 4 February 1939, Mussolini addressed the Grand Council in a closed session. He delivered a speech on international affairs and the goals of his foreign policy. He began by claiming that the freedom of a country is proportional to the strength of its navy and this was followed by the familiar lament that Italy was a prisoner in the Mediterranean. He called Corsica, Tunisia, Malta, and Cyprus the bars of this prison, to break British control, her bases on Cyprus, Gibraltar, Malta, and in Egypt would have to be neutralized. Fascist foreign policy took for granted that the democracies—Britain and France—would someday need to be faced down, through armed conquest Italian North Africa and Italian East Africa—separated by the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan—would be linked, and the Mediterranean prison destroyed. Then, Italy would be able to either to the Indian Ocean through the Sudan and Abyssinia
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Italian Social Republic
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The Italian Social Republic, informally known as the Republic of Salò, was a state with limited recognition that was created during the later part of World War II, existing from 1943 until 1945. Mussolini had originally intended to call his new republic the “Italian ‘Socialist’ Republic. ”It was the second and last incarnation of the Fascist Italian state and was led by Duce Benito Mussolini and his reformed Republican Fascist Party. The state declared Rome its capital, but was de facto centered on Salò, a town on Lake Garda, near Brescia, where Mussolini. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern and central Italy, but was dependent on German troops to maintain control. The new government began peace negotiations with the Allied powers. When the Armistice of Cassibile was announced in September, Germany was prepared, Germany seized control of the northern half of Italy, freed Mussolini and brought him to the German-occupied area to establish a satellite regime. The RSI was proclaimed on 23 September 1943, although the RSI claimed most of the lands of Italy as rightfully belonging to it, it held political control over a vastly reduced portion of Italy. The RSI received diplomatic recognition from only Germany, Japan and their puppet states, around 25 April 1945, Mussolinis republic came to an end. In Italy, this day is known as Liberation Day, on this day a general partisan uprising alongside the efforts of Allied forces, during their final offensive in Italy, managed to oust the Germans from Italy almost entirely. At the point of its demise, the Italian Social Republic had existed for more than nineteen months. On 27 April partisans caught Mussolini, his mistress, several RSI ministers, on 28 April the partisans shot Mussolini and most of the other captives. The RSI Minister of Defense, Rodolfo Graziani, surrendered what was left of the RSI on 2 May when the German forces in Italy capitulated, this put a definitive end to the Italian Social Republic. On 24 July 1943, after the Allied landings in Sicily, the next day, King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini from office and ordered him arrested. The failed war effort left Mussolini humiliated at home and abroad as a sawdust Caesar, the new government, under Marshal Pietro Badoglio, began secret negotiations with the Allied powers and made preparations for the capitulation of Italy. These surrender talks implied a commitment from Badoglio not only to leave the Axis alliance, while the Germans formally recognised the new status quo in Italian politics, they intervened by sending some of the best units of the Wehrmacht to Italy. This was done both to resist new Allied advances and to face the predictably imminent defection of Italy, on 8 September, Badoglio announced Italys armistice with the Allies. German Führer Adolf Hitler and his staff, long aware of the negotiations, acted immediately by ordering German troops to control of northern. The Germans disarmed the Italian troops and took all of the Italian Armys materials
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History of the Italian Republic
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This situation changed due to an external shock – the crisis and Dissolution of the Soviet Union – and an internal one – the Tangentopoli corruption scandal and operation Mani pulite. Although ousted after a few months of government, Berlusconi became one of Italys most important political and economic figures for the next two decades. After leading the Opposition to the Dini, Prodi I, DAlema I, DAlema II and he eventually lost the 2006 general election five years later to Romano Prodi and his Union coalition but won the 2008 general election and returned to power in June 2008. In November 2011, Berlusconi lost his majority in the Chamber of Deputies and his successor, Mario Monti formed a new government, composed by technicians and supported by both the center-left and the center-right parties. After the 2013 election resulted in a parliament, in April the Vice-Secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta. On 22 February 2014, after tensions in the Democratic Party, mussolini was killed by resistance fighters in April 1945. Victor Emmanuel formally abdicated on 9 May 1946, his son king as Umberto II of Italy. A Constitutional Referendum was held on 2 June 1946, republicans won, and the monarchy was abolished. The Kingdom of Italy was no more, the House of Savoy, the Italian royal family, was exiled. Victor Emmanuel left for Egypt where he died in 1947, Umberto, who had been king for only a month, moved to Portugal. A Constituent Assembly was in place between June 1946 and January 1948, it wrote the new Constitution of Italy which took effect on January 1,1948, the Peace Treaty between Italy and the Allies of World War II was signed in Paris in February 1947. The PSI and the PCI received some posts in a Christian Democrat–led coalition cabinet. PCI’s leader Palmiro Togliatti was minister of Justice, since the PSI and the PCI together received more votes than the Christian Democrats, they decided to unite in 1948 to form the Popular Democratic Front. The 1948 general elections were influenced by the then flaring cold-war confrontation between the Soviet Union and the US. In response, on March 1948 the United States National Security Council issued its first document proffering recommendations to avoid such an outcome which were widely and energetically implemented, ten million letters were sent by mostly Italian Americans urging Italians not to vote communist. US agencies made numerous short-wave propaganda radio broadcasts and funded the publishing of books and articles, the CIA also funded the centre-right political parties and was accused of publishing forged letters in order to discredit the leaders of the PCI. The PCI itself was accused of being funded by Moscow and the Cominform, for almost four decades, Italian elections were successively won by the Democrazia Cristiana centrist party. Italy also lost its colonial Empire, except Somalia, which formed the object of a UN trusteeship mandate, in the same years, Italy also became a founding member of the ECSC and of the European Economic Community, later developed into the European Union
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Years of Lead (Italy)
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The left-wing autonomist Marxist movement in Italy which was involved in many events of the period lasted from 1968 until the end of the 1970s. There was widespread social conflict and unprecedented acts of terrorism carried out by both right- and left-wing paramilitary groups, an attempt to endorse the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement by the Tambroni Cabinet led to rioting and was short-lived. The Christian Democrats were instrumental in the Italian Socialist Party gaining power in the 1960s, the assassination of the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro in 1978 ended the strategy of historic compromise between the DC and the Italian Communist Party. The assassination was carried out by the Red Brigades, then led by Mario Moretti, between 1969 and 1981, nearly 2,000 murders were attributed to political violence in the form of bombings, assassinations, and street warfare between rival militant factions. Public protests shook Italy during 1969, with the autonomist student movement being particularly active, on 19 November 1969, Antonio Annarumma, a Milanese policeman, was killed during a riot by far-left demonstrators. He was the first civil servant to die in the wave of violence, the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Rome and the Banca Commerciale Italiana and the Banca Nazionale dellAgricoltura in Milan were bombed in December. Local police arrested 80 or so suspects from left-wing groups, including Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist initially blamed for the bombing, and Pietro Valpreda. Their guilt was denied by left-wing members, especially by members of the student movement, then prominent in Milans universities, as they believed that the bombing was carried out by fascists. In 1975 Calabresi and other officials were acquitted by judge Gerardo DAmbrosio who decided that Pinellis fall had been caused by his being taken ill. Meanwhile, the anarchist Valpreda and five others were convicted and jailed for the bombing and they were later released after three years of preventive detention. Then, two neo-fascists, Franco Freda and Giovanni Ventura, were arrested accused of being the organizers of the massacre, in the 1990s, new investigations into the Piazza Fontana bombing, citing new witnesses testimony, implicated Freda and Ventura again. However, the pair cannot be put on again because of double jeopardy. The Red Brigades, the most prominent far-left terrorist organization, conducted an internal investigation that paralleled the official inquiry. They ordered that the inquiry remain secret, because of the light that it could shed on other terrorist organizations. The inquiry was discovered after a shootout between the Red Brigade and the Carabinieri at Robbiano di Mediglia in October 1974, the cover-up was exposed in 2000 by Giovanni Pellegrino, at the time President of the Commissione Stragi. The Red Brigades were founded in August 1970 by Renato Curcio and Margherita Cagol, who had met as students at the University of Trento and later married, and Alberto Franceschini. The first action of the RB was burning the car of Giuseppe Leoni on 17 September 1970, the Black Prince, Junio Valerio Borghese, took part in it. The coup, called off at the last moment, was discovered by the newspaper Paese Sera, on March 26, Alessandro Floris was assassinated in Genoa by a unit of the October 22 Group, a far-left terrorist organization
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History of coins in Italy
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Italy has a long history of different coinage types, which spans thousands of years. Italy has been influential at a point of view, the florin. Today, Italy adopts the euro currency, spite the fact that the first Italian coinage systems were used in the Magna Graecia and Etruscan civilization, the Romans introduced a widespread currency. Unlike most modern coins, Roman coins had intrinsic value, while they contained precious metals, the value of a coin was higher than its precious metal content, so they were not bullion. Estimates of their range from 1.6 to 2. The florin was struck from 1252 to 1523 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard and it had 54 grains of gold. The fiorino doro of the Republic of Florence was the first European gold coin struck in sufficient quantities to play a significant commercial role since the seventh century. In the fourteenth century, one hundred and fifty European states, the most important of these was the Hungarian forint because the Kingdom of Hungary was a major source of gold mined in Europe. The early modern Italian coins were similar in style to French francs, especially in decimals. They corresponded to a value of 0.29 of gold or 4.5 grams of silver, the Papal States scudo was the coinage system used in the Papal States until 1866. Between 1798 and 1799, the revolutionary French forces established the Roman Republic, in addition, the states of Ancona, Civitavecchia, Clitunno, Foligno, Gubbio, Pergola and Perugia changed their coinage system to that of the Roman Republic. In 1808, the Papal States were annexed by France, when the Popes authority was restored in 1814, the scudo was restored as the currency. However, the coinage of the states was not resumed. In 1849, another Roman Republic was established which issued coins centrally, in 1866, the scudo was replaced by the lira, equivalent to the Italian lira. The exchange rate used was 5.375 lire =1 scudo, the Parman lira was Parmas official currency before 1802, and later revived from 1815 to 1859. The Duchy of Parma had its own system until it was made a part of France in 1802. This lira was subdivided into 20 soldi, each of 12 denari, with the sesino worth 6 denari, the currency was replaced by the French franc. After the re-establishment of Parman independence, the Parman currency system was introduced in 1815, also called the lira, it was subdivided into 20 soldi or 100 centesimi
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Economic history of Italy
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A series of tables showing different Italian economic sectors, GDP growth. The Italian Renaissance was remarkable in economic development, venice and Genoa were the economic pioneers. Reasons for their development are for example the relative military safety of Venetian lagoons, the high population density. During the 17th and 18th centuries Italy experienced a decline in relative economic standing, military conflicts, political fractionalization, limited fiscal capacity and the shift of world trade to north-western Europe are factors which slowed down Italian development. The breakdown of feudalism, however, and redistribution of land did not necessarily lead to small farmers in the winding up with land of their own or land they could work. Many remained landless, and plots grew smaller and smaller and thus more and more unproductive as land was subdivided among heirs, the Italian diaspora did not affect all regions of the nation equally, principally low income agricultural areas with a high proportion of small peasant land holdings. In the second phase of emigration most emigrants were from the south and most of them were from rural areas, driven off the land by inefficient land management policies. Robert Foerster, in Italian Emigration of our Times says, …well nigh expulsion, it has been exodus, in the sense of depopulation, although owning land was the basic yardstick of wealth, farming in the south was socially despised. People did not invest in agricultural equipment but in things as low-risk state bonds. Italy had emerged from World War I in a poor and weakened condition, the National Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922, at the end of a period of social unrest. However, once Mussolini acquired a firmer hold of power, in 1929, Italy was hit hard by the Great Depression. Trying to handle the crisis, the Fascist government nationalized the holdings of large banks which had accrued significant industrial securities, a number of mixed entities were formed, whose purpose it was to bring together representatives of the government and of the major businesses. These representatives discussed economic policy and manipulated prices and wages so as to both the wishes of the government and the wishes of business. This economic model based on a partnership between government and business was extended to the political sphere, in what came to be known as corporatism. Throughout the 1930s, the Italian economy maintained the corporatist model that had established during the Great Depression. At the same time, however, Mussolini had growing ambitions of extending Italys foreign influence through both diplomacy and military intervention and these foreign interventions required increased military spending, and the Italian economy became increasingly subordinated to the needs of its armed forces. By 1939, Italy had the highest percentage of state-owned enterprises after the Soviet Union, finally, Italys involvement in World War II as a member of the Axis powers required the establishment of a war economy. The Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 caused the Italian political structure —, the Allies, on the one hand, and the Germans on the other, took over the administration of the areas of Italy under their control
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History of Italian fashion
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The history of Italian fashion is the important events and occasions which marked Italian fashion and how it evolved to being as it is today. Italian fashion reached its peak during the Renaissance, Art, music, education, finance and philosophy flourished in Italy, and along with these, Italian fashion designs became immensely popular, especially those worn by the Medicis in Florence. The fashions of Queen Catherine de Medici of France were considered amongst the most fashionable in Europe, Italian fashion in the 15th and 16th centuries was mainly influenced by the art of the time, especially by the masterpieces of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Botticelli. Italian designs were known for their extravagance, and their expensive accessories, such as velvets, brocades, ribbons. Also, Italian fashion for ladies changed dramatically around 1460, where skirts were gathered or pleated, and would often be split at the front and the sides to show a sleeved underdress. During the Italian Renaissance, men wore closely fitted waistcoats underneath pleated overcoats called giornea and they wore different kinds of hats, ranging from caps to berets. They also had an overcoat called cioppa and its lining was of a different colour than the main fabric which was a feature of the Italian Renaissance. They also wore hose or tights to emphasize their lower bodies, as hair styles, anything from short to shoulder-length hair was common, it was often curled inwards. Womens dress consisted of fitted garments worn underneath a dress which was also called giornea. Unlike the mens version, the reached the ground and covered their feet. Womens giorneas, originally evolved from the houppelande, had separate skirts, the skirts were tight at the waist and the lower part of the dress was often pleated. They were cut at the front, and in years at the sides. Underneath the giornea women wore a dress called gamurra, which was a long dress which could have detachable sleeves. The underdress worn underneath this was a simple linen dress called camicia, men and women would wear outer clothes with detachable, and often slashed, sleeves of varied designs. Rich people would own many different pairs of sleeves to match with their overcoats, the Renaissance was a turning point for peoples attitude regarding clothes and their appearance. People had a desire to wear tighter fitted clothes to emphasize body shape, merchants expanded the market for items of clothing, creating accessories such as hats, hairnets, bags, or gloves. The spread of mirrors led to becoming more interested in their self-image. Lenza, Leather chord worn around the head, it served the function of keeping hair flat, trinzale, Sheer sort of hair-net worn at the back of the head, sometimes it was beaded
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Genetic history of Italy
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The genetic history of the Italians is greatly influenced by the geography and history. In their admixture ratios all Italians are similar to other Southern Europeans, the only exception are certain northeastern Italian populations who cluster with Germanic and Slavic speaking Central Europeans. Molecular anthropology found no evidence of significant Northern geneflow into the Italian peninsula over the last 1500 years, on the other hand, the bulk of Italian ethnogenesis occurred prior to Germanic or non European invasions. Geneticists agree that no other than the Greek settlement in Southern Italy and Sicily had any substantial biological impact on Italians. Modern man appeared during the Upper Paleolithic, specimens of Aurignacian age were discovered in the cave of Fumane and dated back about 34,000 years ago. During the Magdalenian period the first men from the Pyrenees populated Sardinia, during the Neolithic farming was introduced by people from the east and the first villages were built, weapons became more sophisticated and the first objects in clay were produced. In the late Neolithic era the use of spread and villages were built over piles near lakes. In Sardinia, Sicily and part of Mainland Italy the Beaker culture spread from Western Europe, in Sardinia the Nuragic civilization flourished. From the 8th century BC, Greek colonists settled on the southern coast and in Sicily and founded cities, the Etruscan civilization developed on the coast of Tuscany and Latium. In the 5th century Celtic tribes from continental Europe settled in Northern Italy, with the fall of the Western Roman Empire, different populations of German origin invaded Italy, the most significant being the Lombards, who tried to politically unify the Boot of Italy. The majority of Italians, Sicilians and Corsicans belong to Haplogroup R1b, common in Western, the highest frequency of R1b is found in Garfagnana, Tuscany. This percentage lowers at the south of Italy in Sicily. On the other hand, the majority of Sardinians belong to Mesolotich European haplogroup I2a1a, the results supported a distribution of genetic variation along a North-South Axis and supported demic diffusion. South Italian samples clustered with South east and south central European samples, a 2004 study by Semino et al. contradicted this study, and showed that Italians in North-central regions had a higher concentration of J2 than their Southern counterparts. North-central had 26. 9% J2, whereas Calabria had 20. 0%, Sardinia had 9. 7%, the so-called barbarian migrations that occurred on Italian soil following the fall of the Western Roman Empire have probably not significantly altered the gene pool of the Italian people. In two villages in Lazio I1 was recorded at levels 35% and 28%, in Sicily, further migrations from the Vandals, Normans and Saracens have only slightly affected the ethnic composition of the Sicilian people. However, Greek genetic legacy is estimated at 37% in Sicily. g, the Norman Kingdom of Sicily was created in 1130, with Palermo as capital, and would last until the 19th century. Nowadays it is in north-west Sicily, around Palermo and Trapani, in the thirteenth century Frederick II turned against the Muslims in Sicily and between 1221 and 1226 he moved all to the city of Lucera in Puglia
36.
Military history of Italy
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The military history of Italy chronicles a vast time period, lasting from the overthrow of Tarquinius Superbus in 509 BC, through the Roman Empire, Italian unification, and into the modern day. The Etruscans were settled north of Rome in Etruria and they founded cities like Tarquinia, Veii and Volterra and deeply influenced Roman culture, as clearly shown by the Etruscan origin of some of the mythical Roman kings. The origins of the Etruscans are lost in prehistory, historians have no literature, no texts of religion or philosophy, therefore much of what is known about this civilization is derived from grave goods and tomb findings. The Italics were war-like as the Etruscans, the Italics and the Etruscans had a significant military tradition. In addition to marking the rank and power of individuals in their culture, warfare was a considerable economic boon to their civilization. It is also likely individuals taken in battle would be ransomed back to their families, the Greeks had founded many colonies in Southern Italy, such as Cumae, Naples and Taranto, as well as in the eastern two-thirds of Sicily, between 750 and 550 BC. After 650 BC, the Etruscans became dominant in central Italy, the early Roman army was, like those of other contemporary city-states influenced by Greek civilization, a citizen militia which practiced hoplite tactics. It was small and organized in five classes, with three providing hoplites and two providing light infantry, the early Roman army was tactically limited and its stance during this period was essentially defensive. Thirty maniples arranged in three lines with supporting troops constituted a legion, totaling between 4,000 and 5,000 men, with the new organization came a new orientation toward the offensive and a much more aggressive posture toward adjoining city-states. Legions were often significantly understrength from recruitment failures or following periods of service due to accidents, battle casualties, disease. This pattern also held true for auxiliary forces, harris suggests that down to 200 BC, the average rural farmer might participate in six or seven campaigns. Freedmen and slaves and urban citizens did not serve except in rare emergencies, after 200 BC, economic conditions in rural areas deteriorated as manpower needs increased, so that the property qualifications for service were gradually reduced. Terms of service became continuous and long—up to twenty years if emergencies required it although Brunt argues that six or seven years was more typical, cavalry and light infantry attached to a legion were often recruited in the areas where the legion served. Caesar formed a legion, the Fifth Alaudae, from non-citizens in Transalpine Gaul to serve in his campaigns in Gaul, by the time of Caesar Augustus, the ideal of the citizen-soldier had been abandoned and the legions had become fully professional. Legionaries were paid 900 sesterces a year and could expect a payment of 12,000 sesterces on retirement, at the end of the Civil War, Augustus reorganized Roman military forces, discharging soldiers and disbanding legions. He retained 28 legions, distributed through the provinces of the Empire, during the Principate, the tactical organization of the Army continued to evolve. The auxilia remained independent cohorts, and legionary troops often operated as groups of cohorts rather than as full legions and this increase in organizational flexibility over time helped ensure the long-term success of Roman military forces. The Emperor Gallienus began a reorganization that created the military structure of the late Empire
37.
Music history of Italy
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The modern state of Italy did not come into being until 1861, though the roots of music on the Italian Peninsula can be traced back to the music of Ancient Rome. However, the underpinnings of much modern Italian music come from the Middle Ages, Italy was the site of several key musical developments in the development of the Christian liturgies in the West. Around 230, well before Christianity was legalized, the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus attested the singing of Psalms with refrains of Alleluia in Rome. In 386, in imitation of Eastern models, St. Ambrose wrote hymns, some of whose texts still survive, later, around 530, St. Benedict would arrange the weekly order of monastic psalmody in his Rule. Later, in the 6th century, Venantius Fortunatus created some of Christianitys most enduring hymns, including Vexilla regis prodeunt, which would later become the most popular hymn of the Crusades. Although Gregorian chant has its roots in Roman chant and is associated with Rome, it is not indigenous to Italy. Gregorian chant, which supplanted the indigenous Old Roman and Beneventan traditions, Gregorian chant later came to be strongly identified with Rome, especially as musical elements from the north were added to the Roman Rite, such as the Credo in 1014. This was part of a general trend wherein the manuscript tradition in Italy weakened, Gregorian chant supplanted all the other Western plainchant traditions, Italian and non-Italian, except for Ambrosian chant, which survives to this day. Crucial in the transmission of chant were the innovations of Guido dArezzo, whose Micrologus, written around 1020, described the musical staff, solmization, and this early form of do-re-mi created a technical revolution in the speed at which chants could be learned, memorized, and recorded. Even as the northern chant traditions were displacing indigenous Italian chant, the Albigensian Crusade, supposedly to attack Cathar heretics, brought southern France under northern French control and crushed Occitan culture and language. Most troubadours fled, especially to Spain and Italy, Italy developed its own counterparts to troubadours, called trovatori, including Sordello of Mantua. Italian secular music was largely the province of these jongleurs, troubadors, also around this time, Italian flagellants developed the Italian folk hymns known as spiritual laude. The early madrigal was simpler than the more well-known later madrigals, the caccia was often in three-part harmony, with the top two lines set to words in musical canon. The early ballata was often a poem in the form of a set to a monophonic melody. The Rossi Codex included music by Jacopo da Bologna, the first famous Trecento composer. The Ivrea Codex, dated around 1360, and the Squarcialupi Codex, dated around 1410, were sources of late Trecento music, including the music of Francesco Landini. Landinis name was attached to his characteristic Landini cadence, in which the note of the melody dips down two notes before returning, such as C-B-A-C. Trecento music influenced northern musicians such as Johannes Ciconia, whose synthesis of the French, during the 15th century, Italy entered a slow period in native composition, with the exception of a few bright lights such as the performer and anthologist Leonardo Giustinian
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Postage stamps and postal history of Italy
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This is an introduction to the postal and philatelic history of Italy. As Italy was not unified until 1861, its postal history is tied to the various kingdoms. The Cavallini of Sardinia was a private mail service, notable for the introduction of prepaid stamped lettersheets in 1819. The reform became law in November, and went into effect 1 January 1851, after some casting around for expertise in the newfangled art of stamp printing, the government settled on the house of Francesco Matraire in Turin. Matraire produced stamps with a profile of Victor Emmanuel II. Other states in Italy also issued stamps during the 1850s, Modena, Naples, the Papal States, Parma, Romagna, Sicily, matraires stamps were reprinted several times, and those printed after 17 March 1861 are normally considered the first stamps of Italy. Perforated stamps began in 1862 and, starting on 1 January 1863, in 1862 Count Ambjörn Sparre won the stamp contract, but his designs were not liked, and he seemed unable to produce the stamps. In danger of running out of stamps altogether, at the end of 1862 the Italian government once again turned to Matraire, who quickly produced a 15c value by lithography. Sparres contract was cancelled in March 1863, and a new contract let to the British printer De La Rue and they continued in use until the end of 1889. Italy joined the Universal Postal Union on 1 July 1875, humbert succeeded his father in 1878, which necessitated a new issue of stamps. First appearing on 15 August 1879, they were the first stamps of the kingdom to be designed, engraved. The new series incorporated rates and colors mandated by the Universal Postal Union, the worlds first official airmail stamps were issued in 1917 when Poste italiane overprinted their existing special delivery stamps. In 2007, the issue of an Italian stamp featuring the Croatian city of Rijeka caused a controversy, the stamp referred to the city in its usual Italian name of Fiume, claiming it was former Italian territory. This is seen as offensive in Croatia, revenue stamps of Italy References Sources Dehn, Roy A. Italian Stamps, a Handbook for Collectors, encyclopaedia of Postal Authorities Rossiter, Stuart & John Flower. ISBN 0-356-10862-7 Tony Claytons Stamps of Italy and Italian Colonies
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History of rail transport in Italy
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The Italian railway system is one of the most important parts of the infrastructure of Italy, with a total length of 24,227 km. Railways were introduced in Italy when it was still a divided country, on request of the Milanese and Venetian industries, but also for the already clear military importance, construction of the Milan–Venice line was begun. In 1842 the Padua-Mestre stretch of 32 km was inaugurated, followed in 1846 by the Milan-Treviglio and Padua-Vicenza, in the Kingdom of Sardinia, King Charles Albert ordered on July 18,1844 the construction of the Turin–Genoa railway, which was inaugurated on December 6,1853. This was followed by the opening of sections which connected with France, Switzerland. A locomotive factory was founded in Genoa, in order to avoid the English monopoly in the field. In Tuscany, the Duke of Lucca signed the concession for the a Lucca–Pisa railway, while, in 1845, at the creation of the unified Kingdom of Italy, railroads in the country were the following, for a total of 2,064 km active railroads. Lines in the Papal States were still in construction, while Sicily had its first, the existing lines did not form an organized net, property of the line was statal or private, the latter in turn for private or statal use. A first organic structure began to be created in 1865 with the connections of the existing sections, in 1870 the last remnant of Papal States was also annexed to Italy, it comprised the railway connection from Rome to Frascati, Civitavecchia, Terni and Cassino. In 1872 there were in Italy about 7,000 km of railroads, entrusted to the companies in the following shares. In 1875 a proposal of the Italian government to form a company out of the existing concessionaires was refused by the Italian Parliament. This, among the other benefit, granted the fulfillment of social exigences in transportation, the Italian government was however slow to react, and only in 1878 and 1880, respectively, the largely deficitaire SFAI and SFR went under state administration. Despite this situation, in 1884 the Italian Parliament issued a study in which it was declared preferable a private administration of railways. The Convenzioni between Italy and the three main remaining private companies were signed on April 23,1884, for a period of 60 years. However, this not only failed to improve the situation of railways, hampering the economic development and tourism as well. Liabilities of the secondary lines greatly exceeded the profits from the few remaining ones, by the 1880s the Italian railways amounted to 10,510 km. The move was completed the year with the acquisition of the remaining SFM network, by then FS possessed 13,075 km of lines. A General Director was appointed, the Piedmontese engineer Riccardo Bianchi, a General Direction was created, with 13 Central Services and two General Inspectorates, based in Rome. For peripheral operations, eight Compartmental Directions were created, a capable and respected organizer, he had received a grievous heritage from the previous organizational chaos
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History of Malta
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Malta has a long history and has been inhabited since settlers from Sicily arrived around 5200 BC. Malta became an independent state in 1964, and a republic in 1974, since 2004 the country has been a member state of the European Union. Malta stands on a ridge that extends from North Africa to Sicily. At some time in the distant past, Malta was submerged, some caverns in Malta have revealed bones of elephants, hippopotami, and other large animals now found in Africa, while others have revealed animals native to Europe. People first arrived in Malta around 5200 BC and these first Neolithic people probably arrived from Sicily, and were mainly farming and fishing communities, with some evidence of hunting activities. They apparently lived in caves and open dwellings, during the centuries that followed there is evidence of further contacts with other cultures, which left their influence on the local communities, evidenced by their pottery designs and colours. One of the most notable periods of Maltas history is the temple period, the Ġgantija Temple in Gozo is one of the oldest free-standing buildings in the world. The name of the stems from the Maltese word ġgant. Many of the temples are in the form of five semicircular rooms connected at the centre. It has been suggested that these might have represented the head, arms and legs of a deity, the Temple period lasted until about 2500 BC, at which point the civilization that raised these huge monoliths seems to have disappeared. There is much speculation about what might have happened and whether they were wiped out or assimilated. After the Temple period came the Bronze Age, from this period there are remains of a number of settlements and villages, as well as dolmens — altar-like structures made out of very large slabs of stone. They are claimed to belong to a population certainly different from that which built the megalithic temples. It is presumed the population arrived from Sicily because of the similarity to the found in the largest island of the Mediterranean sea. One surviving menhir, which was used to build temples, still stands at Kirkop, among the most interesting and mysterious remnants of this era are the so-called cart ruts as they can be seen at a place on Malta called Clapham Junction. These are pairs of parallel channels cut into the surface of the rock, one suggestion is that beasts of burden used to pull carts along, and these channels would guide the carts and prevent the animals from straying. The society that built these structures eventually died out or at any rate disappeared, phoenicians possibly from Tyre began to colonize the islands in approximately the 8th century BC as an outpost from which they expanded sea explorations and trade in the Mediterranean. The former settlement was known as Maleth meaning safe haven, the Maltese Islands fell under the hegemony of Carthage in around the 6th century BC, along with most other Phoenician colonies in the western Mediterranean
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Kingdom of Sicily
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The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of the Apennine peninsula from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1816. It was a state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of the southern peninsula. Until 1282 the Kingdom covered not only the island of Sicily, but also the whole Mezzogiorno region of the southern Apennines, the island was divided into three regions, Val di Mazara, Val Demone and Val di Noto, val being the Arabic word meaning district. In 1282, a revolt against Angevin rule, known as the Sicilian Vespers, the island became a separate kingdom under the Crown of Aragon. After 1302 the island kingdom was called the Kingdom of Trinacria. Often the kingship was vested in another such as the King of Aragon. In 1816 the island Kingdom of Sicily merged with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In 1860 the Two Sicilies were amalgamated with Sardinia and several northern city-states and duchies to form the Kingdom of Sardinia which in 1861 renamed itself the Kingdom of Italy, after taking Apulia and Calabria, Roger occupied Messina with an army of 700 knights. In 1068, Roger I of Sicily and his men defeated the Muslims at Misilmeri but the most crucial battle was the siege of Palermo, which led to Sicily being completely under Norman control by 1091. The Norman Kingdom was created on Christmas Day,1130, by Roger II of Sicily, with the agreement of Pope Innocent II, Roger threw his support behind the Antipope Anacletus II, who enthroned him as King of Sicily on Christmas Day 1130. In 1136, the rival of Anacletus, Pope Innocent II, convinced Lothair III, Two main armies, one led by Lothair, the other by Duke of Bavaria Henry the Proud, invaded Sicily. On the river Tronto, William of Loritello surrendered to Lothair and this was followed by Count Hugh II of Molise. The two armies were united at Bari, from where in 1137 they continued their campaign, Roger offered to give Apulia as a fief to the Empire, which Lothair refused after being pressured by Innocent. At the same period the army of Lothair revolted, then Lothair, who had hoped for the complete conquest of Sicily, gave Capua and Apulia from the Kingdom of Sicily to Rogers enemies. Innocent protested, claiming that Apulia fell under papal claims, Lothair turned north, but died while crossing the Alps on December 4,1137. At the Second Council of the Lateran in April 1139, Innocent excommunicated Roger for maintaining a schismatic attitude, on March 22,1139, at Galluccio, Rogers son Roger III, Duke of Apulia ambushed the papal troops with a thousand knights and captured the pope. On March 25,1139, Innocent was forced to acknowledge the kingship and it was through his admiral George of Antioch that Roger then proceeded to conquer the Mahdia in Africa, taking the unofficial title King of Africa. At the same time Rogers fleet attacked the Byzantine Empire, making Sicily the leading power in the Mediterranean Sea for almost a century
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History of Malta under the Order of Saint John
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Malta was ruled by the Order of Saint John as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1530 to 1798. The islands of Malta and Gozo, as well as the city of Tripoli in modern Libya, were granted to the Order by Spanish Emperor Charles V in 1530, following the loss of Rhodes. The Ottoman Empire managed to capture Tripoli from the Order in 1551, following the 1565 siege, the Order decided to settle permanently in Malta, and began to construct a new capital city, Valletta. For the next two centuries, Malta went through a Golden Age, characterized by a flourishing of the arts, architecture, and an overall improvement in Maltese society. In the mid-17th century, the Order was the de jure proprietor over some islands in the Caribbean, the Order began to decline in the 1770s, and was severely weakened by the French Revolution in 1792. In 1798, French forces under Napoleon invaded Malta and expelled the Order, the Maltese eventually rebelled against the French, and the islands became a British protectorate in 1800. Malta was to be returned to the Order by the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, but the British remained in control, the Order of Saint John was expelled from its base in Rhodes during the Ottoman siege of 1522. The Order settled in the town of Birgu and made it their capital, the ancient fortress known as Castrum Maris was rebuilt as Fort Saint Angelo, the towns defences were strengthened, and many new buildings were constructed. The Order soon began to mint its own coins as it settled in Malta, the Hospitallers continued their actions against the Muslims and especially the Barbary pirates. Although they had only a few ships they quickly drew the ire of the Ottomans, in July 1551, Ottoman forces attempted to take over Fort Saint Angelo and later Mdina but saw that they were outnumbered and invaded Gozo several days later. They sailed to Tripoli and captured the city in August, following these attacks, the Order tried to repopulate Gozo and strengthen the Grand Harbour fortifications. Several forts including Saint Elmo and Saint Michael were built, sometime between 1551 and 1556, a tornado hit Malta and destroyed at least four of the Orders galleys and killed 600 people. This is the worst natural disaster that occurred on Malta. In 1553, Charles V offered a third possession to the Order, however, the Order refused to take control of the city since the commission that was set up decided that it would be too expensive to maintain. Therefore, the emperor ordered the Viceroy of Sicily, Juan de Vega, de Vega burnt Mehdia, but retaliated against Malta for not accepting the city, and prohibited exportation of wheat to the island. To combat this, Grandmaster Sengle brought the engineer Vincenzo Vogo to Malta to upgrade the mills so the population would not starve, at first the battle went as badly for the Hospitallers as Rhodes had, most of the cities were destroyed and about half the knights killed. On 18 August the position of the besieged was becoming desperate, dwindling daily in numbers, but when his council suggested the abandonment of Birgu and Senglea and withdrawal to Fort St. Angelo, Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette refused. A wrong decision could mean defeat and exposing Sicily and Naples to the Ottomans and he had left his own son with de Valette, so he could hardly be indifferent to the fate of the fortress
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